Bug 921

Summary:	Add operating system to OpenSSH version string
Product:	Portable OpenSSH	Reporter:	Eric Brown <eric_wade_brown>
Component:	sshd	Assignee:	OpenSSH Bugzilla mailing list <openssh-bugs>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX
Severity:	enhancement
Priority:	P2
Version:	-current
Hardware:	All
OS:	All

Description Eric Brown 2004-08-28 15:10:45 AEST

It would be very nice if the sshd version string included an operating system 
identifier.  Many other SSH servers do include this info.  For example, 
SSH.com's server version string is "SSH-2.0-4.1.3.2 SSH Secure Shell Windows 
NT Server" for windows.  Also, Solaris SunSSH identifies itself as "SSH-2.0-
Sun_SSH_1.0".  In fact, even OpenSSH identifies OpenBSD as the operating 
system when the "p" for portable is missing from the string.  

I use the scanssh tool frequently to check which SSH systems are on the 
network.  When the SSH server is OpenSSH, I cannot identify the operating 
system unless I go through authentication.  OpenSSH now runs on some switches 
nowadays.  In that case it would be nice to know if the SSH server at that IP 
address is a system or a device.

My suggestion is that the version string to change from "SSH-2.0-OpenSSH-
3.8.1" to some like "SSH-2.0-OpenSSH-3.8.1-hpux", "SSH-2.0-OpenSSH-3.8.1-
aix", "SSH-2.0-OpenSSH-3.8.1-linux-i686", etc. 

At build time the "version.h" containing the default string can be generated 
depending on the platform it's built on.

Comment 1 Darren Tucker 2004-08-28 15:42:44 AEST

That seems like a bad idea to me.  OpenSSH is an SSH implementation, not an
inventory system.  If you're authorized to log on to the box and want to know
what it's running, log on and run "uname -sr".  If you're not authorized then
sshd shouldn't give free hints.

SunSSH may be based on OpenSSH originally, but it's a fork and current versions
behave very differently.  Even a "p" version doesn't guarantee that it's *not*
running on OpenBSD: Portable builds and runs fine on OpenBSD too (in fact, it's
the only supported way to run current OpenSSH on older OpenBSD releases).

Comment 2 Darren Tucker 2004-09-11 17:08:23 AEST

We're not going to do this.  If anything, we may go the other way and remove the
"p" extension from the SSH banner.

Comment 3 Darren Tucker 2006-10-07 11:36:55 AEST

Change all RESOLVED bug to CLOSED with the exception of the ones fixed post-4.4.